STATEN ISLAND, NY -- The holiday lights went up on Forest Ave. just after Halloween. CBS FM has been playing "Jingle Bell Rock" for about two weeks now. And Randazzo's Bakery in Great Kills started crafting marzipan for the last month or so for their wholesale customers. Now, they're ready to display the goods in the store.

Marzipan, Julie Randazzo explains, is uncooked almond paste. It's the same ingredient from which pignoli nuts are baked. Not many bakeries continue this kind of craft in house and contract the marzipan-making to outside sources. Usually marzipan is made into fruit and other colorful shapes.

Pamela SilvestriCould this be an apple slice?

Marzipan is formed by hand or in a mold. Salvatore Randazzo said, "We use almond flour to make the paste. Then we add sugar and we use corn syrup to make the dough."

For pumpkin pies, the Randazzos use a giant floor mixer to blend eggs, cinnamon and pumpkin. The bakery sells a few hundred of them each Thanksgiving. Interestingly, coconut custard pie rivals the number of pumpkin ones the bakery sells.

Pamela SilvestriDozens of eggs waiting to be cracked.

For butter cookies, they have a few hundred pounds of flour to weigh.

Pamela SilvestriFlour getting weighed.

Pamela SilvestriThe oven rotates as butter cookies bake.

Pamela SilvestriButter cookie dough is piped onto a sheet pan.

Pamela SilvestriSt. Joseph's Pastries

But back to the marzipan. Can you guess what this will be?

Pamela SilvestriMarzipan being made into a special something. Hint: Those are green peas parked in a little marzipan dough dish.

It's going to be pizza and pasta.

Pamela SilvestriSalvatore Randazzo, owner of Randazzo's Bakery in Great Kills, puts marzipan in the display case.

Pamela SilvestriAcorns.

Pamela SilvestriBananas.

Pamela SilvestriMarzipan tied up neatly into a present.

For Thanksgiving and the holiday eve, Salvatore Randazzo says, "The bakery line will be around the corner no matter how cold it is as soon as we open the door at 6 o'clock on Wednesday and Thursday."

Randazzo's Bakery is located 3965 Amboy Rd., Great Kills; 718-356-9648.

What baked goods are you geared up to buy next week? Does part of the holiday tradition mean queuing up on a line in Staten Island or Brooklyn?